Thailand's Foreign Ministry has ordered Thai Ambassador to London Pasan Teparak to return to Bangkok and report to the ministry as soon as possible for the sake of propriety, ministry spokesman Sek Wannamethee said yesterday.

The move had nothing to do with relations between Thailand and United Kingdom, the spokesman said. Earlier reports claimed the National Council for Peace and Order ordered the ministry to call the envoy back.

"It is the decision of the Foreign Ministry to recall Ambassador Pasan because of propriety," Sek said.

He declined to further comment on whether the order was the result of the envoy's close ties with fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra and former prime minister Yingluck Shina-watra, who is Thaksin's sister.

There have been reports that Pasan, a former consul general at the Thai Consulate General in Dubai from 2006 to 2011, was close to Thaksin. The former PM was ousted in the 2006 coup and lived in self-exile in Dubai to avoid jail in Thailand after being convicted in October 2008 for abuse of power.

Pasan was a member of the secretariat on foreign affairs when Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin's sister, was premier, before being appointed as ambassador to London in October 2012.

Meanwhile, an informed source said it was likely that Pasan would still hold the position of ambassador but be assigned to an inactive post at the ministry in Bangkok.